European rugby’s Six Nations competition will remain on free-to-air TV in the UK courtesy of a renewed and enhanced pair of partnerships with public service broadcaster BBC and commercial free-to-air network ITV through 2029.
BBC and ITV will continue to split the rights for the next four editions of the marquee tournament, with ITV gaining 10 fixtures per year including every England game, while BBC will show the remaining five fixtures per year, including every Scotland and Wales home game (except when each team hosts England), ensuring continued free coverage of the country’s home nations.
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This deal also covers the Women’s Six Nations, which will be shown exclusively by the BBC through 2029, and the youth-category U20 Six Nations, which the BBC will cover on its platforms, likely the BBC iPlayer OTT service, for the next four editions.
BBC’s Six Nations coverage in the new deal extends to audio rights, which it holds exclusively for all three Six Nations categories through 2029.
Speaking on the renewals, Six Nations Rugby chief executive Tom Harrison stated: “The significance of these new and innovative free-to-air partnerships for the Six Nations cannot be overstated. By strengthening rugby’s relationships with ITV and the BBC, the sport can continue to give as many fans as possible in the UK access to enjoy live coverage of the Six Nations.
“These partnerships allow us to maximize audience reach whilst generating critical revenue for the game, enabling each union and federation to protect and grow the sport in their country in the coming years.
This is a coup for the rugby series in maintaining free nationwide distribution in half of its participating markets, especially given the potential prospect of pay-TV services swooping in for the rights instead.
In November 2023, the now-former director of sport at the BBC told members of the UK parliament that the network may struggle to keep hold of rights to the Six Nations in the future due to the rising cost of sports rights internationally.
The previous tripartite media rights deal between the Six Nations, the BBC, and ITV, was agreed in May 2021 and covered the 2022-25 period.
This new media rights agreement, reportedly worth £63 million ($81 million) is an uplift on the value of that previous deal and exemplifies the increasing burden of media rights costs on broadcasters, especially free-to-air networks that cannot rely on lucrative subscription models, and the BBC which does not run commercial advertisements and must rely on fudning from the TV License fee system.
While the immediate future of the Six Nations on free-to-air is confirmed, post-2029, should media rights values continue to soar, pay-TV heavyweights such as Sky Sports and TNT Sport will undoubtedly circle, especially given the major TV viewership draw that the Six Nations represents.
England’s last-minute 26-25 Six Nations victory over France at Twickenham on February 8, for example, was watched by a peak of 6 million viewers across all devices, giving ITV1 its biggest peak audience of the year so far and its most-watched weekend since its coverage of the UEFA Euro 2024 national teams soccer competition last summer.
The Six Nations has still to ensure continued coverage deals in France, Italy, and Ireland, as well as Welsh-language coverage within the UK, and other worldwide distribution beyond participating nation markets, which will be focused on rugby-centric territories such as South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.
